


We Don't Have Any Friends

by leinthalexandra, starshade



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Bullying, Fem!Ori - Freeform, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon, Rule 63, Young Fíli, Young Kíli, Young Ori, mentions of Dis/OFC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-08 11:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leinthalexandra/pseuds/leinthalexandra, https://archiveofourown.org/users/starshade/pseuds/starshade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The adventures of the Durin brothers and Ori in Ered Luin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's our baby girl Ori.](http://searchweight.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/lauren-ambrose.jpg) Basically we can't write anything but fem!Ori now, who knew?
> 
> (Also as a side note, yes, Dis has a wife named Herja. Because Reasons. She never married Fili and Kili's father(s) and she's the only one who knows who he (or they) was (or were).)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Fili, Kili, and Ori first met.

Before her father died, he'd always said that she seemed to be a mix of her older brothers. She was cautious and a little fussy like Dori (to which Dori had always protested while Nori laughed and agreed), but she could also be reckless and adventurous like her brother Nori (and Dori could be heard muttering about how she ought not follow too closely in his footsteps). Ori didn't want to be like either of them--she was her own dwarf, and she knew her own mind.

Ori's ambition was to become a scholar, to travel the whole of Middle-Earth and learn as much as she could about all the different peoples; for now though, she contented herself with chronicling everything and anything she overheard or saw. Ori was very, _very_  good at remembering details to write down in her book later. Now that she's a bit older she can take her book, and her quills and ink, in the small satchel that her brothers gave her when she was very young, on her seventeenth birthday.

Today she's out in the markets--having successfully left Dori behind as he argues with one of the shopkeepers--and Ori can't keep the smile off of her face as she wanders through the cobblestone streets. The markets are outside of the nearby mountains--for some strange reason, the dwarves of Ered Luin didn't live in the mountain, they only mined there. She pulls out her book and scribbles herself a note to ask someone why that is.

But regardless, she enjoys the cool air and the blue skies that are only slightly filled with wispy white clouds. She pulls her scarf up, though, when she notices people looking at her. Ori doesn't have much of a beard, even for a dwarrow-lass of her age (being twenty-three years old, she should have at least a little bit of one, but every day Ori looks in the small mirror in her room and sees nothing). She's small, too, and her skirts are too big, though Dori keeps telling her she should let him hem them, but Ori is always too busy to bother with that.

Ori is poking around through some of the artisan stalls when someone suddenly shoves her hard. She stumbles and trips over the hem of her too-long skirt, falling to her hands and knees on the ground. A number of people laugh behind her, it sounds like, and when she stands up and turns around she sees a group of boys with smug grins on their faces. Some of them are Dwarves, others are Men, but they're all of them several years older than her and much taller. She vaguely thinks she recognizes them from her previous visits to the marketplace, but she hasn't had time to write anything down about them.

"What're you doing around here?" one of them asks in a jeering voice. "You ought to go run back to your big brother and hide behind his skirts."

Another adds, "She's already hiding behind that big stupid scarf of hers." He advances on her and Ori tries to back away, but he grabs at her and tears her scarf away from her head. Ori tries to take it back but he holds it out of her reach; he and his friends laugh loudly, and his grip on her arm is painful. She tries to push him off but he only tightens his hold.

\--

Kíli had successfully lured Fíli away from their mothers, though he suspects that Dís knows exactly where they are as they wander through the open markets. The occasional person fusses at them to get out from under foot but beyond that they are left alone and Kíli keeps hold of his brother's hand as they explore.

"Bet she's just like her brother, gonna nick stuff when we're not looking!" someone taunts nearby, when he and Fíli come to a quieter area.

"Kíli, no-" Fíli starts.

But Kíli is already dragging him towards the source, because he knows that tone of voice, has heard it often enough, and someone else shouldn't have to. They duck through between two unattended stalls and see a girl, around their age, reaching desperately for a scarf held out of her reach by a young Man. The boy and his friends are laughing as the girl struggles, and the boy shoves her back onto the ground as one of the dwarves with him grabs a book from the girl's satchel and starts to go through the pages.

Kíli knows some of these boys; they're the same who have taunted him before, him and Fíli. 'Too scared to go anywhere without holding someone's hand?" 'Where's your beard, huh?' 'Neither of you belong here!'

He hears only the barest rip of paper before the Dwarf boy drops the book with a pained cry, clapping a hand over his eye where a cut has opened up over his eyebrow, and when Kíli looks again to the girl, she has a slingshot in her hands and is reaching for another stone.

The boys all stare at her in shock for a moment, as if surprised she's fought back, but it only lasts a moment and then they're advancing on her, and that's the last Kíli--and Fíli--can take; he charges out from between the stalls with a shout, Fíli going right along with him, to stand between the girl and her attackers.  
~

"You shut your mouth about my brother!" Ori shouts, balling her hands into fists. Nori's taught her a little about how to fight, but she has no illusions that she'll be able to take them all on. But the boys act as though they didn't hear her at all; they keep taunting her, and one of them grabs at her satchel and shoves her over, his friends laughing when she cries out.

"What the hell is this?" he says, leafing through the pages. "You spying on people?"

"Probably for her brother," another calls. "He's likely got her started early so he knows the best ones to go after!"

And then she sees the one with her book start to tear at the pages. Ori feels her blood boiling and she pulls out her slingshot, grabs a stone from the ground, and hits her target right in the eye. He gives a yelp of pain and she grins, taking up another stone and readying another shot. The others look at her in shock, but then they glare at her with hardened looks, all trace of amusement gone.

As soon as they start towards her, though, two other boys jump in front of her, shouting out and distracting the others. Ori can't see who they are--all she can tell is that they're Dwarves like her--but they raise their fists towards the other boys as they come towards the three of them.

"Oh, look, she's got some of her sweethearts here to protect her!" one of them jeers. "Too bad they're not gonna be much use!"

Ori's arms tremble but she gives a loud yell and fires her slingshot at the one who'd just spoken. He cries out and grabs at his throat where the stone had hit. _That'll keep his mouth shut for a few minutes_ , she thinks with grim pride.  
~

Kíli gives a shout when the one grabs his throat and leaps at the nearest one; a twig of a human boy, taller than Kíli but thin enough that Kíli's weight bowls him over as soon as he hits him. Fíli is right behind, shoving at one of the Dwarf boys.

It turns into a mess of shoving, clumsy punches and pulled hair, with the occasional stone flying into the fray to connect with one of the bullies. Kíli takes an elbow to the nose, one of them knees Fíli in the gut, and they're far too outnumbered to have any real hope of winning, but at least they'd done _something_.

They're spared an embarrassing defeat when someone shouts to call the guards and the group immediately disperses, fleeing off into the gathered crowd and disappearing, leaving Fíli, Kíli, and the girl in the dust. The brothers, at least are the worse for wear, but that doesn't stop them; Kíli grabs her scarf, Fíli her book, and each of them take her by the hands and pull her away before any of them can get into trouble.

They don't stop til they're well away from the markets, on a bridge over a shallow creek, all of them doubled over with their hands braced on their knees, trying to catch their breath.

"Here," Kíli pants, holding out the scarf to the girl, giving her what's likely a blood-stained grin. "I think you dropped this."  
~

Ori takes her scarf back with a bit of wariness, wrapping it around her head again and covering the lower half of her face. "Thank you." Her shoulder hurts from where one of the other Dwarf boys had hit her, and she thinks her knees might be bruised as well. "And, erm, thank you for...helping. You needn't have done that."

The flaxen-haired one hands her book to her and Ori tucks it back into her satchel. "Think nothing of it. Hopefully those blockheads won't trouble you anymore."  
~

"Couldn't sit back while they bothered you like that," says Kíli. It had also been nice to get a bit of revenge for the taunts he's suffered. "I'm Kíli." He gives her a quick bow before wiping the blood from his nose and mouth with his sleeve. Their mothers aren't going to be happy when they go back.

"Fíli," says his brother, with a nod. "They didn't hurt you did they?"

She shakes her head. "No, I'm fine. And I'm Ori, by the way." Her brother isn't going to be much pleased when he hears that she'd been in a fight. Speaking of her brother, Ori can hear him chastising her in his head, and she gives a short nod of her head. "Are the...two of you from around here?"

"It's good to meet you, Ori," says Fíli. "We don't live too far off."

"Close enough we've dealt with _them_  before," says Kíli, with a glare back the way they'd come. "You're a good shot, though. I don't think the one will be speaking for a while." He can't help grinning at that.

Fíli nudges him with an elbow, as if he shouldn't be encouraging Ori.

"What? She was good." He shoves his brother right back, which prompts Fíli to step on his foot.

Ori rubs the back of her neck and laughs a little. "My brother's been teaching me, when he's here." She doesn't want to talk about Nori, though, in case they've heard something about him. "The two of you aren't bad yourselves."

"Our mamas taught us," says Kíli, with a proud grin.

"For things other than getting into fights," says Fíli.

"Still comes in handy for it, though, doesn't it, Ori?" Kíli smiles at Ori again, and Fíli shakes his head at his little brother. He's always good at winning people with that smile, though he's not sure it's going to work on Ori. She seems rather shy, though she'd showed she was brave when she'd fought back.  
~

"My brother says that it's a good skill to know," Ori says, "but our eldest brother doesn't...approve." She shrugs. "He's always like that, though." It's hard for her to warm up to people, but she has to admit that Kíli's smiles are hard to resist. "But what in the world do they go after the two of you for?"

"Lots of things," says Kíli, and his hand has found Fíli's again. "Their favorite is that we don't belong here."

There were others of course--taunts for Kíli being so small, mocking them both for Kíli's habit of forever clinging to Fíli's hands, his lack of a beard. Fíli ended up holding him back more often than not, thus keeping there from being more scuffles than he deemed entirely necessary.  
~

Ori blinks. "Oh." She hesitates for a moment. "...You too?" She and her brothers have gotten darker looks from some of the merchants, been charged more than the folk who weren't exiles. There are some who treat them with kindness, though, but they're few and far between. For some of the younger ones, like Ori--and Fíli and Kíli, she would assume--it's even harder. They were born here in the Blue Mountains, didn't even remember Erebor. And yet they were treated as outsiders.

Fíli looks away from his brother to give Ori a curious look. "Your family's from...?" When she nods, he nods back. They have that in common, at least. Their uncle always hates hearing stories about how some of them are treated, gets a distant look sometimes when it's brought up...

"Well, we almost got the better of them today," says Kíli. "So maybe they'll think twice about bothering us again. Besides, we have Uncle Thorin and Mister Dwalin. That'd scare them."  
~

"Mhhmm. My brothers were both rather young when it happened--one was only a baby, in fact." And their parents had died not long after they'd arrived in the Blue Mountains--Ori had barely known her father because of a mining accident.

Then she does a double take at the name that Kíli had mentioned. "You--you're the King's nephews?" she stammered, and pulled her scarf so that even her eyes could barely be seen. _Oh, dear..._

Kíli's grin falters when Ori pulls her scarf up. "Aw, don't hold _that_  against us... I don't much like being related to him sometimes but Fíli says-"

Fíli elbows his brother in the stomach to shut him up, though it makes him flinch to see Ori withdraw. He and Kíli don't have much the way of friends, something caused by a combination of both their family, and the lack of children from parents who were also exiles. "We're his nephews, but we still get teased, same as you, Ori," he says.  
~

Ori still holds on to the edges of her scarf regardless. It's a little intimidating, regardless of what they say. "I'm sorry, it's just...you know. But," -and here she pulled her scarf down just a little- "I promise I won't hold it against you." She smiles when it earns her a laugh from the brothers. "I don't have many friends, so..."

"Neither do we," says Kíli. They mostly only had each other, and Kíli is often content with that, but he wouldn't say no to someone else to get into trouble. "You want to go not have many friends with us?"

"We can take you home," says Fíli. "They probably won't bother us again if we're all together."

"Why would we take her home, we could show her that cave we found-"

"Because Mam will be looking for us."

"Mama always knows where we are."

This time Ori actually laughs out loud. "As long as I can find my brother first and make sure he knows where I am, or I'll get an earful when I get home." Dori's likely to fuss at her anyway, but it won't be nearly as bad as otherwise. She pulls her scarf all the way down this time and adds, "But I wouldn't mind at all coming and having not many friends with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thunderstorms.

"I don't think you ought to be walking home in this, Ori," says Dís, looking out the window with apprehension. The wind howls and whistles through the cracks and the entire house seems to groan under the pressure in the air. Low rumbles of thunder have started, not yet loud and fierce, but Dís thinks it's only a matter of time. Outside, the rain now falls in a curtain so thick it's hard to see very far beyond the window, and they can all hear the roar of it on the roof, when only minutes ago the downpour had been relatively gentle.

"We can take her home tomorrow!" says Kíli, with a grin. "And she can stay tonight!" He can't stop bouncing on his toes, beaming at the prospect, and Dís gives him an indulgent smile.

"If the weather permits, darling." She glances at Ori. "I know you ought to have been home by now, but I really don't think it's safe."

Ori nods. "Thank you, Missus Dís. Dori might not be very happy about it, but he'd rather me be safe than try to come home in this weather." Her brother can't possibly fuss about it if she tells him that she was staying with Missus Dís--much as he may disapprove of Fíli and Kíli getting her into trouble now and again.

They all scream at the next clap of thunder, except for Dís, but even she jumps when it rattles the house. "It's all right, loveys," she tells them. "Kíli, come out from under there."

Kíli climbs out from under the chair and his ears have gone bright red from embarrassment. "Is Mother gonna be all right? She's not home..."

"She'll be fine; she's with Mister Oin," says Dís. "Now all of you, you might as well get to bed. Go on. And don't think I won't be checking on you, Kíli."

"Yes, Mama." Kíli has no intention of leaving the safety of the blankets once he gets under them, though--not with the storm. He grabs both Ori and Fíli's hands as they all make their way to Fíli and Kíli's room.

Until there is another loud crack of thunder that shakes even the floor, and Kíli runs, dragging Ori and Fíli right along with him, and tries to immediately tug both of them into bed, where it will be safe. "Come on, Fíli!" he pleads, when Fíli stops and makes an attempt to get out of his wet clothes, a feat which Kíli hinders by not releasing his grip on his brother's hand, or Ori's.

Ori tugs at Kíli's hand. "At least let's get out of our wet things," she says. "We'll be quick." Fíli agrees and pulls away from his brother to yank off his tunic and trousers until he's just in his shirt. Ori does the same, her simple shift hanging down to her knees and Kíli apparently decides to follow suit.

Then a crack of lightning comes, followed closely by a loud roll of thunder. The three of them dive under the blankets and huddle close together. Ori shivers against Fíli on one side, while Kíli buries his face into Fíli's back.

Kíli reaches over (and under) Fíli to clutch Ori's shift as he presses himself as tightly against his brother as he can, as though Fíli is going to keep the storm away.

The wind howls again, somehow louder than the thunder, and Kíli can't help but voice the thought, "What if it blows the roof away?" He'd heard stories of such things, storms and winds so terrible that entire buildings were torn down. And what would there be to do if their house was to be stripped away around them? Quieter he adds, "It sounds like Uncle Thorin's stories 'bout the dragon." And that thought makes him squeak when the next crash of thunder, and he doesn't care that Fíli can probably feel him shaking.

Ori chokes on a sob as she huddles closer and reaches over Fíli, hugging him and grabbing hold at Kíli's shirt. "M' brother's told me stories, too..." she whispers, "about...that." Fíli doesn't need to ask what she means.

"It won't blow the roof off," says Fíli. Whether he's trying to convince them or himself, he isn't sure. "And it's not no dragon, neither."

"Didn't say it _was_  a dragon, now, did he?" Ori retorts, feeling a little more confident when the thunder and lightning aren't constantly pounding above their heads. "Said it only _sounded_ like one."

Fíli gives her a half-hearted shrug. "I know that, Ori."

Kíli kicks the back of his brother's knee. "Stop actin' like you know everything, Fíli," he mumbles, just to be contrary. Fíli kicks back at him, though Kíli's legs are short enough that the back of Fíli's foot finds nothing but empty mattress and his revenge is thwarted by his own height. "Is Dori gonna be mad, Ori?"

"Maybe," Ori says, "but Nori's home." She curls in on herself, making her body a tight little ball and wrapping her scarf around her. But Fíli just pulls her over him--ignoring her squeak of surprise--until she's between him and Kíli. Then he tucks the blankets under his side so that they're all squished in together. He blinks when Ori slowly unwraps her scarf and wraps it around behind her shoulders, but also his and Kíli's, so that the warm, knitted wool covers their heads as well as hers.

Kíli snuggles close to Ori and buries his face further in her scarf, the warmth of it, and her and Fíli pulling him into a sleepy haze, and he yawns wide as the sounds of the storm seem to face. "Fíli, sing somethin'," he murmurs, tugging at a lock of his brother's hair from over Ori's shoulder.

Ori wraps an arm around Kíli's waist and tucks her head under his chin, giving a wordless agreement to Kíli's words. Behind her, Fíli puts his own arm around her as well. "All right," he says. It takes him a few moments to think of a song, going through the ones he knows in his head. One finally comes to him, though, one that his mother and uncle had sung to him and Kíli many times when they were young.

Kíli lets his brother's voice drown out the last sounds of the storm, and he yawns again, eyes starting to drift closed despite his attempts to keep them open. "G'night, Ori. G'night, Fíli." His voice slurs when he speaks and he lets his eyes close finally, no longer struggling to keep them open as Fíli's voice lulls him further towards sleep. He's safe here, after all.


End file.
